The Twinkies

Brian has a torn rotator cuff. That would be a shoulder injury and a miserable one at that. So… he had major surgery, still has to wear a brace, can’t pick up the kids and now has a bum shoulder for which he can’t take anti-inflammatories and so has to just tough out.

Meanwhile, the kids are just over their puke/poop fest having missed all but one days of their last week of school so I didn’t get much done this week other than cleaning up unpleasant human fluids.

Brian has made it home and is doing fine. Today was his first visit with the local rehab facility which agreed that he was being handled very conservatively by the hospital rehab and that he can be pushed a little more; he spent most of the afternoon asleep after said pushing. He will be going back to have his ass kicked by them twice a week for a while with the goal of getting him back to work as soon as possible. He was told to expect it to take a year to totally heal.

We are going back to see the surgeon for another follow-up appointment tomorrow. I should have more details after that.

Right now I have a husband in rehab on major medication and I have to spend 3 hours every day in the car in order to see him. Meanwhile I have made major life sacrifices to be a stay at home parent and now I hardly ever see my children. Both of my children have minor fevers. My daughter was just diagnosed with food allergies that include corn, yeast, milk and eggs. I have to relearn how to shop and eat and cook. I’m hungry all the time because I am constantly on the run from one obligation to the next and to eat this way you have to prepare meals. There are no convenience foods that don’t contain corn products. Last night I changed a green, tarry diaper at 3AM. I tried to switch from cow dairy to goat dairy and the results were quite ugly. Green. Tarry. Smelly. I nursed both kids repeatedly and brought them to the bed to cuddle in their feverish misery then returned them to their cribs so they could sleep all at 3AM. Well, 4AM too. I ended up breaking down on the floor of their room. I’m just at the wall.

Today we painted in the backyard and I have a giant toddler painting to take to Brian. Then there was lots of playing with the hose and the water sprayer. Paint leads very naturally to playing with water.

Fiona can put on her own sweater. She loves to do this. She does this over and over again. I am going to have to hide her sweaters all summer or she will be wearing 4 layers in 80 degree weather because it is just so much fun to put on your own sweater.

I was thinking a sorbet/sprinkler play date party might be in order for June. Homemade sorbet treats for the lot of us who can’t have dairy and sprinkler fun for the toddlers.

I have pictures of the kids to process to print for Brian I need to trim the edges of the giant painting. I need to sleep. I need to go to Yoga. I need a break. I need a good cry. I need some time to not be either taking care of other people or doing baseline maintenance on myself. It could be so much worse, everything is going really well with Brian and we live only a few blocks from a Whole Foods and I like to cook but I’m just really overwhelmed right now.

Brian is doing very well. He got to take a shower yesterday; it was the first one in a week so he was pretty happy about that. He has a funky toy to put his socks on, a back brace that looks like a corset and a nifty grabber. I’m planning on bringing the kids to see him tomorrow.

He has a follow-up appointment with his surgeon on the 22nd, which is next Tuesday. We hope that he’ll get sent home after that.

Please send him e-greetings HERE. Brian Berry in room 3316. Rehab is kind of… grim… so he could use all the cheer he can get.

Brian has been moved to rehab. He is at the Van Munching Rehabilitation Center at Stamford Hospital.

It is still 90 minutes away. Sigh. He has a follow up appointment with the surgeon on the 22nd and I hope they’ll send him home then. This driving thing is not the most fun I’ve ever had.